Getting Political

For a while now I've been telling you anecdotes about how my politics classes are going.  From my stories it's safe to imply they aren't going well.  It's always going to be problematic taking classes about subjects you didn't realise existed. Like for instance that states have different laws to one anotehr. Do you know under Californian law if you commit three criminal acts you can be sent to prison for life ! Life in prison, for traffic violations ! But if you did the same in Pennsylvania your stint in prison would be considerably shorter.  This is just one of the things that make studying politics in America so confusing !

Anyway since I do study politics I thought I would give "explaining the election" a go. There's probably a class you take on this, but ambitious as always I'll try to explain it in 500 words. 

The US presidential elections work very differently from our parliamentary system at home.  Candidates must first be nominated by their party by competing in primary or caucus election against other wannabe candidates from the same party.  Primary elections are held by each state and the states government deicides who is allowed to vote and when these elections will be held.  For example in Pennsylvania you must register your political affiliation with a party in order to be able to vote in that parties primary.  Yet, in other states anyone can vote in a primary. Republicans even encourage their voters to participate in Democrat primaries to vote for the weakest candidat. 

‘Caucus’ elections on the other hand are run by political parties and involve members making a more informal vote on their preferred candidate. This happens in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada -most of the states hold primary elections.  

What people abroad (and even voters in America) don’t realize is that the presidential election is not the only election taking place on November 8^th.  1/3 of the 100 seat US Senate is up for election, including one of the senators for Pennsylvania. Three rounds of Senate elections take place over six years, this is because the  US has a continuously rotating Senate membership, a system designed by the founding fathers to stop a single group being able to control the government and "dispel personal liberties" ( i.e. take away people's rights).  

As well as the Senate, 86 state legislature chambers (most state governments) and the House of Representatives are also up for re-election. The results of some of these elections is already known because many districts only have on candidate standing ! 

This may all seem a bit confusing but that's the point of it.  The US political system is chaotic with different types of elections happening left, right and centre. Voters don't walk into a booth on November 8 and tick either Clinton or Trump they make about twenty other choices at the same time! This is not something that only happens every four years either, due to the rotating system of the Senate and House Americans go to the ballots every single year.  Can you imagine dealing with billboards, advertisements and voting every single year ?

I expected there to be a lot of discussion and hype about the upcoming election when I arrived but this discussion is not happening between ordinary Americans.  Media outlets blast the election in all directions but there is disconnect with real voters.  There is a general sense of disillusionment by ordinary Americans – people seem feel let down by the political system and the political parties that are supposed to represent them. To me this is concerning ! You don’t get the sense that American voters understand how their decision on November 8 will have a chain reaction around the world and will seriously impact how other countries. Personally I'm worried Americans are not going to head to the polls on Novermber 8 and we will have a President that doesn't truly represent what they people want. 

In other political type news NBC nightly came to my senior politics class the other day to film a segment about young people in the election. They spent an hour filming our professor explain redistricting and us, the students ask questions and take notes.  Unfortunately we never made the NBC news because the next day the FBI announced the were opening up Clintons case again, and bam our news story got taken over by Hillary again ! 

So there, that was an attempt at trying to use my politics degree in real life ! Let me know what you think in the comments.